


The Tablets of Hippocrates

by ShinyHalo115



Category: Perils of Nyoka (1942), Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Cleopatra VII - Freeform, Crossover, MacGuffin Item, Matinee serial, Roman Empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-17 23:10:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16105730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinyHalo115/pseuds/ShinyHalo115
Summary: Xena must help Cleopatra's granddaughter locate something that once belonged to her grandmother so the Romans can't get to it.





	1. The Woman in Need (Opening Scene)

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during Season 6 in modern day Algeria.

    "Xena are you sure this is the right way to the theater?" Gabrielle asked.  She was riding a horse with her friend Xena down a street dotted with vendors.  

    "I heard that the theaters of Caesarea were very large, I bet we'll eventually come across one if we keep going," Xena said.

    "She's over there, capture her!" someone yelled.  Not far away they heard the sound of horses galloping.  A woman with light brown skin, dark curly hair, and a blue outfit was riding away from three men who had their faces concealed by cloth.  Xena threw her chakram to her right, it bounced off a wall and hit the first pursuer on his left arm, which then traveled to his back left and hit the next pursuer in the right arm, then traveled to the back right and hit the last pursuer in the chest.  All of them fell off their horses.  

    "Stay out of this wench!" the leader yelled, "the chieftain  will have her as his bride!"

    "I will not be with anyone who would allow the Romans on even larger foot hole in Maurentia!  As far as I'm concerned everyone in the Maturi tribe is dung!" the woman yelled.

    "You heard the lady," Xena said.  She jumped in the air, landed in the middle of the men, and fights them until they retreat.

    "You have a thousand of my thanks, I thought I would be less conspicuous without my bodyguards," the woman said.  "Ever since my brother died men have been trying to kidnap me to force me to marry so they could gain power."

    "Don't worry," Gabrielle said, "if there's one thing Xena and I have been good at, it's getting women away from unwanted living conditions."

    "Xena?  Is there any chance that you are the Xena I heard was here and I have been looking for?"

    "I am.  Who wants to know?"

    "I'm Drusilla, Princess of Maurentia."

    "I've heard of you, you're Cleopatra's granddaughter," Xena said.  "I knew her many years ago."

    "Yes, I was hoping you could give me information about something that belonged to her, but you don't look old enough to be someone who knew her."

    "Being frozen in ice for twenty five years does wonders for the skin," Gabrielle said.

    "What is it you want to know?" Xena asked.

    "A couple years ago my brother Ptolemy went to Rome and told people about something that belonged to our grandmother called the Tablets of Hippocrates.  He later angered the emperor Caligula and was murdered, but now Caligula has been murdered himself, and the new emperor Claudius is bent on invading Maurentia and taking the Tablets."

    "We can't let Claudius get ahold of the Tablets," Xena said with a determination in her voice, "or they will be used as a weapon of mass destruction."


	2. Complications

    "Before Cleopatra's daughter left Egypt to marry King Juba, her mother give her a chest with some of the treasures of Egypt," Xena explained.  "The chest must've been passed down to Ptolemy with the Tablets inside."

    "Perhaps my sister-in-law Julia Urania would know where the chest is.  Her temple is not that far from the village of Wadi Bartha.  Her and my brother's friend Aedemon have been using it as a secret place to lead the resistance against the Romans,"  Drusilla said.

    "But what are the Tablets of Hippocrates?" Gabrielle asked.

    "They contain Hippocrates' research of the Dread Disease," Xena explained.  "It use to be in the Library of Alexandria, but they must've been removed before the library was destroyed.  Claudius probably wants it for the same reason Octavian did:  to use it to kill a political rival without the suspicion of murder, or to give an entire population the Dread Disease."

    While the three of them were traveling on their horses on the road to Wadi Bartha, Gabrielle pulled her horse closer to Xena's.  "Xena I was thinking, what do you intend to do with the Tablets once they are found?"

    "As long as the Tablets exist Claudius will not stop looking for it.  The only way to stop it from being used as a weapon is to destroy it."

    "But if there's a way to use the Tablets to create a cure for the Disease, then we can't destroy them."

    "Gabrielle the best minds in the world tried to create a cure when the Tablets were in Alexandria, but it was impossible, not even Hippocrates could do it.  My grandfather died of the Dread Disease so I have seen how it can slowly and painfully kill a person, I can't let that happen to anyone."

 

    Julia Urania may had been married to the ruler of Maurentia, but it was here in her temple that she truly felt like a queen.  Architects from her native Syria were brought here to build a temple for the Syrian god Ninurta.  It was richly decorated with incense lamps and tapestries depicting Ninurta slaying the Evil Bird to attain the Tablet of Destinies, which had the power to reverse time.

    "My Queen, I have received a copy of a book by a philosopher named Pomponius Mela.  It uses the work of Theophrastus, who studied ways to forecast the weather, and combines it with Mela's own work on geography," one of her wise men said.  He seemed interested in it, but to Julia it sounded boring.

    A man nearby grabbed the book and walked to a torch.  "The Romans are our enemies, they have nothing to teach us. Everyone knows rain is sent by the gods."

    "No! Lord Aedemon please!" the wise man cried.  He tried to save the book by taking it from him, but a significant portion of the bottom corner was already singed.

    "My Queen, the Princess Drusilla has returned," one of her maids said.

    "My sister, this is Xena and Gabrielle, Xena tells me that the Tablets of Hippocrates are likely in a treasure chest that was given to my mother, do you know of it?"

    "Yes, she ordered that the chest and the jewels she brought from Egypt be buried with her."  Julia had been disappointed that her mother-in-law gave such an order.  Even in death that woman snubbed her.

    "Where's the tomb?" Xena asked.

    "It's a couple miles outside the village," Julia said.

    "Then we must move quickly, the Romans may have already questioned people who knew her and could be on their way to the tomb."

    Xena, Gabrielle, and Drusilla went to the tomb to retrieve the treasure chest.  They had found it next to the coffin.  When they went outside they discovered that the Romans had caught up to them.

    "Hand over the Tablets now, or this will also become your tomb," the Roman General Geto said.

    "Drusilla, ride back with the chest, Gabrielle and I will deal with them."

    Xena and Gabrielle were good fighters, and they stalled the Romans long enough to give Drusilla a good head start down the road.  But the pair was outnumbered and Gabrielle was knocked unconscious.  Xena jumped in the air, did a flip, and landed next to Gabrielle.  She picked her up and whistled for the horses.  She hoisted Gabrielle onto her horse, fought some more soldiers, then she hopped on her own horse and rode off.  Some of the Romans who weren't too badly injured tried to follow them, but Xena hid the horses behind a large rock, and when the soldiers went past, she took a different route.

    Inside the temple Julia was admiring the jewelry and Drusilla was walking back and forth in anticipation. The double doors opened with a slight creaking noise and Xena walked in.  "Xena! what happened?" Drusilla said.

    "Gabrielle is injured and needs to rest.  Have the Tablets been destroyed?"

    "Our blacksmith have tried to melt them, but this is unlike any gold they've ever seen," Drusilla said.  "I've noticed that the tablets are made out of the same type of material as the chest, which has Tuareg markings.  The Tuareg sorcerer would know how to destroy it."

    The next day the Tuareg chief was brought to the Temple.  "Great Sorcerer," Drusilla said, "We need your help in destroying the Tablets."

    "What are these Tablets that you would need my help?"

    "These are tablets which contain Hippocrates' research on the Dread Disease, they were found with other treasures which belonged to my grandmother."

    "These Tablets should be saved, not destroyed! Such valuable information to find a cure cannot go to waste."

    "If Claudius gets his hands on them, he'll use the research to turn the disease into a weapon," Xena said.

    "The Dread Disease is not contagious, how can it be weaponized?"

    "By finding a way to turn it into a poison that can be ingested of left in the water supply to wipe out an entire population."

    "Very well, we will prepare the ceremony to destroy the sacred gold in the Tunnel of Bubbling Death.  But it can't be performed until the full moon."

    "We don't have much time," Xena said.  "The Romans are already here."

    "We'll deal with them,"  Aedemon said.  He turned to one of his men, "Sabalus, have your army kill all the Romans."

    "Yes my Lord."


	3. Xena and the Tuaregs

    The desert was unbearably hot, which made it the last place the Roman soldiers wanted to be.  The unmerciful sun made their clothes soaked in sweat, and their metal breastplates and helmets too hot to touch.  Inside one of the tents the Roman general was looking at a table full of scrolls.  "General Geto," one of the soldiers said, "we don't have enough water to make it across the desert."

    A servant from the native Maturi tribe moved forward.  "My Lord, if we perform the rain ritual than we could have plenty of water."

    "Emperor Claudius will be furious at me for retreating," Geto said, "but fighting in the desert without water will be suicide.  At this point I'm desperate to try anything."

    The rain ritual was performed with Geto ceremoniously lighting the fire while the Maturi servant performed the rain dance.  This was all seen by one of the camp prostitutes, Hyphelia, who slipped away during the night.

 

    Hyphelia arrived at another army camp and went to the commander's tent.  "Chief Sabalus," one of the soldiers said, "our spy has returned."

    "Chief Sabalus," she said, "the Roman army has a very low supply of water, General Geto is even performing the rain ritual."

    "Ha!" Sabalus laughed, "the gods will not bless a foreigner.  Return to their camp before they notice you are gone."

    The rain came as a surprise to everyone the next day.  "The gods have spoken," Sabalus said, "they bring the rain to our enemies because they are against Aedemon for rising above his station as a slave.  Tell the Romans that we surrender."

    Later a messenger rode into the camp and was taken to Sabalus' tent.  "The General accepts your surrender and promises that the Empire will be generous to your tribe when they take over Maurentia, but first you must take him to the Tablets of Hippocrates and the treasures of Cleopatra."

    "Tell him it would be my honor."

    Hyphelia was listening outside the tent, and she covered her mouth to keep from crying out.  Grabbing a jug of water and some food, she left during the night on a stolen horse to warn the others.

 

    Back at the temple Xena and the others left to destroy the Tablets, leaving Gabrielle behind.  She had woken up from her head injury but there was still some pain in her leg.

    Hyphelia rushes into the temple, "I have to warn them!"

    "Slow down," Gabrielle said, "what's the problem?"

    "Sabalus has betrayed us and is on his way here with the Roman General Geto."

    "Do you know where the Tunnel of Bubbling Death is?"

    "I've heard of it, if you take the road to the east and cross the second rope bridge you find it will take you to the Lair of the Eagles, the Tunnel is just beyond that."

    "You get help, I'll warn the others."

    Gabrielle mounted her horse and rushed away.  When she found the rope bridge she dismounted and went across on foot.  "My leg is really going to be hurting when all of this is over," she said.

    The rope bridge was old, and many people went across it earlier.  When she was halfway across the bridge she heard the ropes snapping.  She turned around with a horrified look on her face and grabbed the rope next to her tightly as the bridge fell.

 

    The Tunnel of Bubbling Death was not for the faint of heart.  It was a cave system with openings in the ground that was above a body of water that mixed with a super-heated substance that lit the water on fire.  The openings, which was filled with bubbling water and fire, released so much steam that it was hard to see.  Occasionally the fire would suddenly become larger, burning anyone who was standing nearby.

    One of the three passageways led to an area where there weren't so many openings.  It was here that the Tuareg sorcerer performed the ceremony.  "Great Earth Goddess, we ask that you return this sacred gold to the depth of the Earth," the sorcerer said in a loud voice.  A few of the Tuaregs were beating the drums and Xena was nearby watching.

 

    Outside Gabrielle climbed up the broken bridge and started running toward the cave the best she could with an injured leg.

 

    The sorcerer gestured to one of his followers to bring out a gold bowl of water.  He waved his hands above the water to bless it, the long sleeves of his robe almost touching the water, and held up the Tablets above his head.  Xena's eyes were completely focused on the Tablets.

 

    Gabrielle reached the steamy cave but didn't know which of the three entrances to take.  Trying to wave the steam away, she saw that somebody dropped a scarf at the left entrance.

 

    The drums were beating faster, and the sorcerer placed the tablets in the bowl.  Xena looked on with rapt attention.

    "Xena!" Gabrielle yelled interrupting everything, "the Romans are about to invade, and the bridge is out!"

    "Is there another way to get back to the village?" Aedemon asked.

    "The quickest way is the other bridge about a half a mile from here," said one of the Tuaregs.

    They all go to leave, only to discover that a dozen of the Romans are already in the cave because Sabalus told them about the other bridge.  A fight breaks out, and some of the people ended up dying a horrible death by falling into the fiery, bubbling water.

    "The Tablets of Hippocrates cannot exist so long as there is war!" cried the sorcerer, and he emptied the contents of the gold bowl into the bubbling water.

    "No!" yelled Geto.  Claudius was not going to be pleased about this.  They fought some more, but the Maurentia reinforcement arrived, and the Romans were being pushed back.  "You may have destroyed the Tablets but the Empire will rule this land completely," vowed Geto.  The Romans ended up retreating for the time being.

 

    "It's a shame that eh writings of Hippocrates on the Dread Disease was destroyed," Gabrielle said as she and Xena were riding away on their horses.

    "They weren't destroyed, I saw the Tuareg sorcerer switch the real Tablets with decoys."

    "Really?  It's wonderful that this time knowledge was saved instead of being destroyed like what happened at Alexandria.  I hope someday, somebody will use it to find a cure."  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Temple of Ninurta later becomes Vultura's hideout. The scenes of Gabrielle falling from the bridge and the "camera" doing a close-up of Xena's eyes are references to the original serial.


End file.
